Tuesday, March 20, 2012

#48 Appeal - Decision Announced

That is the scene this AM outside the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, NC. Thanks to Bill Ferguson Jr. and Claire B. Lang for the pictures via Twitter. It is final appeal day for the #48 team from Hendrick Motorsports.

Update: Slightly before 4PM ET, the media was informed that the suspensions and points penalties give to the #48 team had been overturned in the appeal. The fines would stand, but this is a huge breaking story. Race Hub on SPEED is at 6PM ET.

Update 2:45PM - Rick Hendrick just left the R&D Center for a little fresh air and told the media a decision should be coming shortly. He did go back inside.

Update 2PM:Reporter Dustin Long passed along information that nothing has happened. No one has left the building and nothing has been announced in terms of a decision.

Update 12:15PM: ESPN just advised that the "NASCAR Now" show scheduled for 3PM on ESPN2 is being moved to the ESPNEWS network to make way for extended NFL programming focusing on Peyton Manning's move to the Broncos.

ESPN has NASCAR Now Lead Reporter Marty Smith on-site. The NASCAR Now show is scheduled for 3PM ET. SPEED has reporter Danielle Trotta on-scene. That network has Race Hub scheduled for 6PM.

ESPN has a live truck there, but there is no information about doing cut-ins to SportsCenter if a decision comes down earlier than expected. SPEED has said no cut-ins, but they will use a sports ticker to pass along any information.

We will keep this blog post updated on news, information and happenings at the scene via social media. Happy to have your comments on this topic.

Thanks JD. I don't know if there was anything on the bottom ticker about this (nascar now moving to BSPNews). I can't see it on our little TV screen from where I'm sitting. What I don't understand is, if the nfl has their own channel, why not discuss this fball stuff there? Like I keep saying, BSPN hates racing and race fans.

Here I am again. I am so grateful to Twitter. How else would we know about the penalty for HMS being rescinded? BSPN will have the breaking news on tomorrow. That's if nascar now can be found. At least Race Hub will have all the details for those not online.

Regardless of the decisions or what the true truth, I don't understand Nascar's appeals process. It makes zero sense to me why on the first appeal, both parties can't argue their points at the same time before the 3 person panel. Doing it separately doesn't tell the whole story in my opinion. I don't get it. The appeal process should be simple. Have a 5 person panel, majority rules, both parties state their cases and be done with it.

So a lot of people think Chad and his boss got away with another one. Thing is, even if Chad were not at the track, things would still go along the same way.

My question is: Do any of you think maybe this is one reason Nascar keeps losing fans? The fact they never act consistantly and let some teams get away with things and the fact that even after he jumped 2 restarts Sunday, Kenseth was not called on it? Is the fan base dwindling on these types of incidents?

Anyone else think having the head of appeals being a former GM exec and personal friend of Rick Hendricks had anything to do with this? While NASCAR did not handle the intial inspection all that well, overturning everything but the fine is a green light for Hendricks Motorsports to cheat at will. All they have to do is appeal to a personal friend and all goes away. On the other hand, Mark Martin lost a championship for something that was no competitive advantage, but what the heck, he was driving a Ford. This is exactly why both Ford and Chrysler have walked away from NASCAR before, blatant manufacturer favoritism.

I guess this means more Chad-watch on FOX this weekend. All the elements are there: long California green flag runs, the anticipated boredom in the production truck - FOX will be all over him all afternoon.

Unlike many, I'm ambivalent when it comes to Chad,Jimmie and Rick Hendrick.People seem to either like or not like Chad and Jimmie. John Middlebrook's ruling was certainly puzzling considering he left the fines/probation stand. Middlebrooks ruling was certainly contradictory to Nascar's ruling on the matter and the opinions of the Speed "experts" like Larry Mac, DW,Joy,etc as reported on "Sadler Hub"---I mean Race Hub. Rick Hendrick testified that three other cars including another car he sponsors had to grind the "C" pillars. Nascar should explain why those teams weren't fined/disciplined. Hendrick cited numerous facts/data/records for the car. Why is it that the Speed experts and the media never seemed to delve into the facts? It appears that John Darby over reacted and the Speed folks and Nascar media just got in line with that. Reminds me of an expression many years ago when I was a little boy----"they know who butters their bread...." As an aside, Hub AGAIN did a big deal on Herme and Elliott Sadler. How many times are we going to go back and visit Herme's college dorm room? There are almost 100 drivers in Sprint Cup and NNS who whould kill to get the air time Elliott Sadler gets on Race Hub. What is going on?

I'm sure that Nascar is reviewing its policies towards pre-race inspections. We all know that many times, the cars have to be modified before passing pre-race inspection. Under what circumstances do you get penalties/suspensions versus being told to make further changes? Why do some cars get asked to change the C-posts without penalty and the #48 gets heavey penalties? It should be crystal clear. If a car is found to be illegal AFTER pre-race inspection, penalties are obviously appropriate. Someone interviewed Junior Johnson a few years ago when the #48 was found to have tweaked the front fenders while passing the template. He just couldn't believe Nascar would penalize a team before the car had an opportunity to get through the inspection process. It'll be interesting to see how Nascar handles this situation.

John Middlebrook was chairman of GM for, what, 42 years? Rick Hendrick is the largest privately owned Chevrolet dealership in the country, and has been selling GM cars for almost 30 years? You don't think those two have a friendship? Of course he was going to appeal to the highest level: He knew the outcome weeks ago..... What a sad day for justice. Sorry, JD, i know it's not the social media comment per your boundaries, I just can't figure out the stranglehold Hendrick has on the "sport".

I am conflicted about this because if I understand the situation correctly (and I may not) the infraction was called at an informal inspection; not the full blown Room of Doom with the Creepy Claw. Also the car never saw the track with the offending C Posts.

At the same time Voldemort has been tagged for "refinements" to sheet metal before -- last time, I think, was a couple of yrs ago and involved the front quarter panels.

And he all but dared NA$CAR to catch him doing something with his Scannergate instructions to Weasley.

"I am so grateful to Twitter. How else would we know about the penalty for HMS being rescinded?"

Well, I learned about on Jayski yesterday, then read it this morning in the local newspaper's sports section, then heard it on ESPN radio on my way to work, then read it again here. I haven't checked, but I'll bet it's up on NASCAR.COM too.

Before JD thinks I'm feeling superior to social media users again, I'm pointing out that we had ways to learn these things on other media ten years ago, and that all of them still exist.

Now that Fox has run out of ways to link Mikey with Daytona in every conversation. Now they can ask him to speak on what its like to be caught cheating, though I dont think he got his penalties overturned.

Watched the coverage today (Tuesday). ESPN decided to take the corruption route. They introduced Brad Daugherty, emphasizing his credentials serving a stint on the appeals board for NASCAR. Immediately asked about the suggestions Middlebrook was somehow in Rick Hendrick's pocket because they had past business dealings. (Who in NASCAR hasn't had business dealings with most of the others?) Daugherty said that such corruption was the first thing which came to his mind.

Perhaps the first thing which might come to mind which would be helpful to understand something like this would be to look at what facts the decider had at his disposal. But maybe Brad's experience is that the process is sometimes, or often, or usually, corrupt.

Assuming corruption is not the norm, one might wonder why Daugherty didn't consider if Middlebrook thought the act of presenting a car which had passed post-race inspection on it's last time at the track did not present evidence of scienter to justify points penalty or suspensions. There were other odd facts about other events which I won't go into here as well.

Race Hub handled the matter in a journalistic manner instead of displaying a sensationalist agenda. Comments from Kyle Petty, Matt Clark, and others were balanced and displayed interest in exploring the topic.

No one addressed the question which Daugherty’s suggestion of corruption or influence also could have raised. That would be whether John Darby had an agenda when he pulled the car out of line and started ball rolling without it ever having it (allowing it to be?) inspected.